This invention relates generally to air mattresses and more particularly to an improved air mattress that reduces the amount of polyvinylchloride necessary to manufacture the mattress.
Almost all current air mattress use polyvinylchloride (“PVC”) or thermoplastic polyurethanes (“TPU”) as the primary or exclusive materials for manufacture. These materials are widely available, adaptable to many forms of use, and provide the stable and flexible structure necessary for these mattresses. However, greater attention has been recently focused on the potential environmental pitfalls of both PVC and TPU. In particular, concerns revolve around the plasticizers that must be used with PVC in order to make the material flexible. These plasticizers may leach out of the PVC sheets used to produce air mattresses and have been connected to significant potential health hazards. In addition, PVC, and to a lesser extent TPU, takes hundreds of years to degrade in landfills.
Other drawbacks to the use of these materials include cost and weight. These are petroleum-based products and, therefore, the cost associated with these materials can vary greatly with fluctuations in the price of oil. Furthermore, the weight of these materials can present issues for the manufacturer in shipping the products and for the consumer in carrying the mattress.
Therefore, it would be desirable to produce an air mattress capable of reduced usage of PVC and TPU while maintaining the same performance characteristics of current mattresses.
Standard mattresses, and in particular, “pillowtop” designs, tend to utilize a basic structure that involves top and bottom horizontal layers of vinyl that are separated by one or more internal, horizontal layers of vinyl on the interior of the mattress. These internal layers serve to restrain the sides of the mattress when the mattress is loaded. These layers can also serve to isolate the mattress into separate upper and lower chambers, if desired. These mattress also utilize multiple, vertically-oriented members or “beams” that traverse the interior of the mattress from side to side. These beams serve to provide vertical support to the mattress and help prevent “bowing” of the mattress during loading.
In these standard mattresses, it is obviously necessary to secure the beams to the exterior layers of vinyl. However, in mattresses utilizing an internal horizontal layer, it is necessary to actually utilize two sets of beams—one above and one below the internal horizontal layer, and to secure, by sonic welding, for example, each beam to the internal horizontal layer and, as appropriate, either the top or bottom external layer of the mattress. This structure results in a large number of seam points, requiring extensive labor on such mattresses.
Therefore, it would be desirable to produce an air mattress having an internal structure capable of restraining the external surfaces of the mattress from bowing while reducing the number of seam points and, consequently, the amount of labor involved in manufacturing such mattresses.
Finally, higher end versions of these standard mattresses utilize a flocked material on the upper, exterior (or sleeping) surface of the mattress. These flocked surfaces are intended to enhance the aesthetic appeal and comfort of the mattress by providing a somewhat softer, non-vinyl surface for the user to rest upon. These surfaces are almost universally made of very fine polyester fibers that are flocked to the upper vinyl layer of the mattress. Flocking is a process that involves applying an adhesive to the surface to be flocked and ionizing the surface, typically by applying an electric field to the surface. The ionized surface attracts the flocking material to the surface in a relatively even layer where the material is then secured to the surface by the adhesive.
While the flocked polyester material does provide a somewhat softer feel to the mattress, it is not an ideal sleeping surface. In particular, the flocked polyester surface does not “breathe” as the user lies on the surface. This feature can lead to moisture, in the form of the user's own perspiration and other natural secretions, collecting on the flocked surface. This collected surface moisture, especially when combined with the elevated surface temperatures resulting from the user's body heat, produces ideal conditions for rapid bacterial growth on the mattress surface. An alternative to polyester flocking is laminating a woven material to the top surface of the mattress. While this approach does produce a more breathable surface, it is also adds significant expense to the overall manufacturing process.
Therefore, it would be desirable to produce an air mattress having a sleeping surface that provides the preferred aesthetic appeal and comfort of a flocked surface while providing an impediment to bacterial growth and avoiding a significant increase in the cost to produce the mattress.